To stay in class, or not to stay in class....

I have class tonight, if the snow stops. There's already a half an inch, and its 9:00am. So I'm expecting to get the e-mail that its cancelled, unless the snow stops anytime soon.

I'm still having the debate if I should stick with this class. Tonight will be the second one I go to, so I guess I shouldn't give up to easy. This Saturday, I have my private flyball class. I'm hoping it goes well, and if it does I'll drop the agility on Wednesdays, and do flyball.

New Pics of Zelda... at the request of Paula :)

Break from Puppy :(

I'm leaving for North Carolina in a couple hours, for Bryan's brother's wedding. Bryan's the best man, so I'm trying to do as much as I can for him so he doesn't freak out. That means not a lot of time for puppy.

I have to take her to the day care soon, that's where we're boarding her while we're gone. She loves it there, so I'm not concerned about it at all, and I think she'll be in dreamland that whole time. Surrounded by nothing but dogs and playtime! Its a crateless facility, so all the dogs wither sleep in the "doggie slumber party" or in a little room. Zelda doesn't mind her crate, in fact she sleeps in there voluntarily instead of our bed sometimes. But I still like the ides that the day care is crateless, makes it feel more like home.

But my point here is that I almost started crying this morning because I'm going to miss her. I can't believe it! I never cry! I also had this horrible dream last night that I dropped her off, and there was this man there that was incredibly rude and mean to me, which made me cry. I'm turning into such a worry wort mom!

We'll miss class tonight, which honestly I could care less. No news from Lisa yet when her classes are starting, but I hope its soon. I'm seriously think about dropping the Princeton class and taking flyball on Wednesdays at the other club. I just don't know. I don't want to flush $130 down the drain. Come on Lisa!! Start your classes again!!

I started my Couch to 5K program 2 days ago, and I'm about to go out for another run in a couple minutes. I brought Zelda with me, and she did better than I expected. Although I think she might have slowed me down a bit with her pee breaks and desire to sniff everything she passed. But for the most part she kept up and seemed happy to do so. I think I'll try today without her, and see if it makes a difference. She's going to the day care anyway, which will tire her out enough without making her run 2 miles.

I won't be back until Monday, so there will be no updates until then. I need to stop wasting time writing on here and keep snuggling with puppy while i can!

Week #1

I've been excited for this class for 3 months. I had so many high expectations, since it is given by a fairly large, respectable club.

When I got there, there was already about 7 dogs there. Immediately I thought "Wow, this is a big class." I was right on time, so I figured I was the last one. Then 7 more dogs showed up..... for a total of 14 DOGS! I was used to a small class, only about 5 dogs. When the instructor introduced her assistant, I was slightly relieved.

Before we got to the actual training, they had everyone introduce themselves. I was the only one who had agility experience before, but I was also the only one who didn't have any formal obedience training. I taught Zelda everything she knows, and she knows a lot. but since Zelda is my first dog, I've had no prior experience training, so she is less than perfect. She was able to hold a down-stay long enough for the instructors to see though, so I was proud of that. The instructor said its very important for the dogs to have a solid down-stay, because we need to have complete control over our dogs during class. I'm not going to lie, that worried me a bit. But so far she was an angel (other than lunging after the other dogs for play time, of course)

We started out by practicing targets. they handed out plastic lids to everyone to use as their targets. i already had one, since the same technique was used in my first class. When she handed me one, and I said I already had one, she gave me a blank stare and walked away. Um...ok. I had already been teaching Zelda to target the lid, so as soon as she saw it she started ramming her nose into it. Then she started to get a little antsy. She decided its more fun to sniff the horse poop smell in the dirt, than to eat hot dogs and cheese. With so many dogs in the class, I had the instructor come over once, just to say good and walk away.

Then it was time to introduce them to the a-frame. We all got in a line, and one after another, brought our dogs over the a-frame. There was a good 10 minutes in between each attempt, because of the amount of dogs. Zelda got to try it twice. Luckily, she had no fear of it, and actually loves running up and down it. But as we're waiting, and I'm trying to control this wiggly, jumpy, pulling little furball, I'm watching the other dogs go over the frame. I've been keeping my eye on a border collie/Australian cattle dog mix, because this dog did not look comfortable with anything that was going on. It kept growling and barking at the other dogs, and looked terrified the whole time. I watched the owner of this dog pull this dog up the frame by the leash, as the instructor pushed his behind up. The dog was digging his claws in the whole time, and squirming to get free. I was horrified. This is supposed to be fun for the dog, and he was having anything but fun.

Then we split into 2 groups to do the tunnel (luckily there were 2 tunnels) I watched the same thing happen again. The instructor grabbing the dog's leash as it was squirming and screaming, and the instructor shoves the dog through the tunnel. Zelda of course, ran right through with no problems, since she's done all this before. Thank god the instructors did not handle my dog in this way. I could not wait to get out of there.

I e-mailed my old trainer, and told her about all this, and asked her of she could help. She's going to start classes again in March, and she'll be happy to bring me and Zelda to Novice level, then after that she'll recommend some one to bring us further. Hopefully it will be on a different night so I could do both. I'm going to use this class for use if the equipment, and to teach focus amidst distractions.

Since its been a couple days since my class, this post isn't that entertaining, or detailed. Most people who are going to read this know my situation already, because they hear me bitch about it all the time (sorry guys!). Hopefully future posts will be better. I just needed to get down a little background to start. I plan to mostly use this as a journal for training, and hopefully I can figure out what's working and what's not.

Watch out agility world, I'm coming no matter how i get there.

Change of focus

As you can see, it's been almost a year since my last post. i'm going to be changing my focus a bit. I've decided to start training Zelda in agility seriously. That means getting to competition status, and actually competing. People make fun of me, and say I spoil my dog, and I spend too much time focusing on her. But when I get a trophy and ribbons, then you'll be jealous.

I took a beginner's class last summer given by Lisa Judge. I loved Lisa and the class, and Zelda did great. Becuase it was them winter time, there was a serious lack of classes. I finally found one held inside, giving by Princeton Dog Training Club, and had my first class last Wednesday. That's where this blog starts.

New House for Puppy

So we closed on our townhouse on Monday, and we've been so busy!! I've been doing nothing but painting and spackling and vacuuling and steam cleaning and..... I'm so sore.

I feel awful about Zelda becuase she's couped up all day. We can't let her run around because I don't want little paint pawprints all over the carpet. I can't wait until we're moved in and this is over so I can relax and give her a good workout.

Sorry so brief, but I"m beat and jsut wanted to explain my absence. I'll write again once I don't have a paint brush permanently stuck in my hand.

Busy Weekend for a Busy Pup

I'll be surprised if Zelda doesn't sleep for 3 days straight.

Saturday she came to my parents. I'm actually ashamed to say she was crated most of the day. We were out and about, and went to dinner, but came home once in a while to let her out.

But then there was Sunday. We went to Bryan's parents. They have 2 dogs, so she had plenty attention from them and Grandpa Stokes, who has a tendency to spoil dogs rotten. There were tons of people there too, almost 30. So she had plenty of attention, excitement, and play. She also got to stay outside a lot in the fenced yard. We also took a break to take her to the dog park near Bryan's parents house. The park was split into 2 sections, small dogs and large dogs. Each section had an agility course, so Iw as really excited about that. With her speed and athleticism, I think she'd be great. She didn't quite make the cut for the large dogs, she was short 15 lbs. So we had to go into the small dog section, which I think she hated. The small dogs weren't as rambunctious as the large dogs. most ran away from her. She kept going over the the fence and staring at the large dogs. She really thinks she's 70 lbs, but she's only 20 :( She had no interest in the agility course, too many other distractions around.

On the way home from Bryan's parents, I held her in my lap. Usually we keep her in her crate for long car rides, since she seems to get car sick and its safer. But this time we had lots of boxes in the back seat that we took from his parents for the move. So I had to keep her in my lap. And, well, she peed. On my leg. Didn't even squat. while she was laying down, peed on my leg. Didn't even stir. And I didn't even notice until later, I just felt warmth, and figured it was her warm belly. She's never peed on us before, and she had plenty of opportunity to go before we left, but there she was... with a little leak on my leg.

After work today, we took her for a long walk, and stopped for ice cream for ourselves. Its a little incentive to take her on walks, although the walks aren't going to help my waistline at this point. We were out for about an hour, including the ice cream stop. When we got back to the building, there as a guy walking his 3 month old white German Shepard puppy, which by the way, might have been the most adorable dog I've ever seen. his name was Tuce, and he was the same size as Zelda, but Zelda is much skinnier and leaner. We let them play for about 10 minutes, and I was so happy, because Zelda's never really got down and rough with a puppy. They wrestled like I have never seen dogs wrestle before. She had a great time, and so did Tuce, I was so happy to see her play like a puppy should, and not like adult dogs should. That wore her out even more than the walk I think.

Today I also decided to teach her the game "find it". I would hide her tennis ball under her towel, tell her to find it, and she would go to town digging into that towel and wouldn't stop until she found it. She picked up the game right away, and would not stop until she found it, no matter where I hid it. It was very entertaining for me, and kept her busy and thinking. The terrier in her really came out for the hunt.

In the past week, Zelda has lost 8 TEETH!! 8 in one week!! Can you believe it? I had no idea they lose them all at once like that! lol. Now I just have more for my collection. Maybe I'll make a puppy tooth necklace. hehe :)

Quickie updates!

Well Houdini's secrets have revealed. Zelda can climb. I saw it first hand. She puts her two front paws on the gate, then uses her back paws to scramble up . She got out one day, went to a loose spot on the carpet, and dug a nice hole. There goes the security deposit . Now during the day she is banished to the bathroom, she lost her privileges. At least the bathroom has a door of off Bryan's office so he can keep an eye on her.

Zelda hasn't been feeling well the past couple days. She's been sleeping more than usual, and her eyes aren't as bright, and her nose gets dry and hot. She's still plenty rambunctious though. As I type she keeps dropping her ball at my feet. I brought her to the vet this morning, just to make sure all was ok. She didn't have a temperature, and her chest sounded fine. She has had bouts here and there of icky poo, so he gave me some meds, I have to bring her back if she doesn't get better by the end of the week.

I know she's teething, I see blood on her toys sometimes, but I've never found a tooth. I was upset because I want to keep them. My baby's first tooth!! lol. Last night she was on the couch, jumped off, landed on her towel, slipped, and fell on her face. I felt so bad, it looked so painful, but it was hilarious too! She's such a spazz sometimes. She ended up knocking out 2 of her teeth, and one of them wasn't quite ready to come out. It was hanging out of her gums! She kept trying to get it out, and looked like she was in pain. I held her and her head, and Bryan ripped out the tooth. She was upset at the time, but I think it was a relief. We gave her some ice cubes and she was back to normal. And I have 2 teeth for my collection, finally!

On a lighter note, she's doing excellent on the leash. I got her an Easy Walk harness, and that thing is a miracle! NO more pulling at all, and one little tug and she's right by my side. it may be cheating, but whatever works. Its a joy to take her on walks now, I enjoy getting exercise myself. I'm sure she likes it too, she's actually letting me put the harness on without much fighting.

Works been crazy, so not much motivation to update on Zelda, I'll try to be more persistent, I promise!